The present disclosure relates to a laser scanning microscope apparatus and a method of controlling the apparatus.
As a technique to observe an object with high resolution, there are laser scanning microscope apparatuses. Such laser scanning microscope apparatus radiates laser light to an object, and while scanning the object with the laser light, detects intensity of the transmitted light, the backscattered light, fluorescence, Raman scattered light, and various types of light produced by the nonlinear optical effect, and the like. It is thus possible to acquire various types of information on the object as two-dimensional or three-dimensional image data.
FIG. 12 illustrates one configuration example of a laser scanning microscope 1 in the past. As illustrated in FIG. 12, laser light emitted from a laser 10 transmits a pair of galvano-scanners 21, equipped with a pair of reflecting mirrors, and relay lens optical systems 22 and 23 to be introduced to an objective lens 26. The laser light collected from the objective lens 26 creates a small light focus spot on an observation object 5. The incident angle to the objective lens 26 is altered by changing the direction of the laser light with the galvano-scanners 21, which enables scanning of the light focus spot on the observation object 5. Reflected light or fluorescence from the observation object 5 is detected via the objective lens 26, a half mirror or a wavelength separating mirror 24 by a photodetector 27. The laser scanning microscope 1 generates a two-dimensional image based on a photodetector signal corresponding to the light focus spot position detected by the photodetector 27.
In such laser scanning microscope 1, a high resolution lens to generate a smaller light focus spot has a narrow visual field in general and has a narrow image acquisition area. In the objective lens 26 of the laser scanning microscope 1 in the past, the resolution and the visual field (that is, image acquisition area) are in relationship of so-called trade-off. In addition, when using the galvano-scanners 21 for the optical system as in the laser scanning microscope 1 described above, the relatively large size becomes an obstacle to miniaturization of the microscope apparatus.
JP H10-90606A, for example, discloses a miniature confocal microscope utilizing a low-mass objective lens. In such confocal microscope, a drive system to drive the objective lens is configured with an electromagnetic voice coil that is supported by a flexible material and cooperates with a permanent magnet on a fixed portion of an optical assembly.